


Gold Moon

by Kiwi_bug



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Additional Tags to Be Added, Additional Warnings Apply, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Ethan and Lyra share the one mom friend braincell, Help, Multi, Parental Abuse, Pokemon Abuse, Pokemon Journey, Team Rocket (Pokemon), Ultra Holes | Ultra Wormholes (Pokemon), Weapons, and Silver is their idiot child, because children shouldn't be fighting gangs, idk how to use ao3 yet, not used correctly but whatever, some violence, they're actually evil, unhealthy idolization
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:54:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29907615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiwi_bug/pseuds/Kiwi_bug
Summary: Lyra really didn't mind moving to Johto from Unova with no explanation. No, no she actually minded a lot. New Bark town is all but deserted except for the Pokemon professor and his son. When she meets said son, she finds they have a lot more in common that she first assumed, including not having a Pokemon. When they agree to go on a journey together once they both turn eighteen, they are both ecstatic. But what they don't expect is a forgotten force that has slowly been putting itself back together to emerge trying to usher in a new age of domination.Or, I wanted to write a Pokemon fanfic and this started spawning.
Relationships: Hibiki | Ethan/Silver(eventual), Kotone | Lyra/Falkner(unrequited), Kotone | Lyra/Whitney(sort of)
Kudos: 2





	1. Journey

**Author's Note:**

> Lyra comes to terms with the fact that she is no longer in Unova, makes a new friend, a new rival, and for some reason has too many interactions with old men.

Go explore the town her parents said, it’ll be fun they said. Lyra snorts, angrily kicking a pebble down the dusty path. She hadn’t been this bored since she was forced to play a spare Amoonguss in the Audino in Wonderland play in fourth grade. 

She settles under a tree overlooking the little pond and sighs. She was already missing Nimbasa, though it’s dark alleys and shady street corners not so much. At least there had been something to do in Nimbasa, sightseeing, spectating on the railway - that was always fun - or traveling to Castelia with her friends for the day. A little smile pulls at her face when she remembers the time her Bianca and Cheren had accidentally found themselves at Relic castle, and the absolute chaos that ensued to get back home in one piece. 

She spends a good portion of the day under that tree scrolling through her phone looking at pictures of the three of them, eyes glazing over with tears as she finds the pictures of her friends when they got their first Pokemon, Lyra standing quietly in the corner behind her mother, whose face was clad with an unimpressed scowl. 

‘When can I get a Pokemon?’ she had asked. ‘BinBin and Cher already had theirs for two years’

‘You aren’t getting a Pokemon’ her mother replied. ‘You need to be more responsible to get one. Remember when you got a B+ on your test? We can talk about it when you get all A’s’

She had asked her parents again when she had only gotten A’s but the same excuses came again.

‘You’re still too irresponsible. You wouldn’t want something to happen to the Pokemon because you weren’t ready for it right?’ her father said. ‘You’ll get a Pokemon when we think you’re ready for it, we’re just trying to do what’s best for you’

Lyra pulls her knees closer to her chest as a chilling breeze ruffles the grass at her feet, closing her phone to instead gaze at the lake's mirrored surface and her own slightly puffy eyes. 

“Hey mind if I sit here,” 

Lyra looks up from her spot to lock eyes with a boy around her age, smiling brightly.

“Why?” she asks, narrowing her eyes.

“You seemed kind of lonely, and it’s not like we have a lot of new people in Newbark, despite the name,” he says.

Lyra shrugs and scoots herself over a little, and that seemed to be all the invitation the eccentric boy needed. 

“You’re new here right? Are you from somewhere else in Johto or another region?”

"I’m from Unova,”

The boy leans towards her with wide shining eyes.

“Really!? What’s Unova like? Are there different Pokemon? Do you have a Pokemon from there? Are Castelia cones as good as everyone says they are-,” he cuts himself off, leaning away from her and fixing his eyes on a few blades of grass by his feet. “Sorry I shouldn’t be asking so many questions,” 

“It’s fine, you just need to ask them a little slower so I can actually answer them,” Lyra says. 

The questions start again, and she gives answers along with her own questions. The boy’s name turns out to be Ethan, and Lyra is surprised to know that he hasn’t left Newbark town since he was a kid, even to go so far as the next town. 

“So do you have a Pokemon?” Ethan asks, quickly glancing down to where her trainer belt would be.

“No, I really want to get one though,”

“Are you eighteen yet?”

Lyra is immediately more wary, glancing back towards her house. “Why does that matter?” she snaps. 

Ethan looks extremely confused at her sudden change in attitude and gasps, clapping a hand over his mouth with the unmistakable look of I messed up. 

“That is not what I meant, I was just wondering if you knew that you could get a Pokemon when you turn eighteen,” he quickly amends, seeming genuinely worried. 

“Isn’t that just a rumor though?” Lyra says, still slightly wary.

“I don’t think so. My dad’s the Pokemon professor here, but it might be different in Unova, I don’t know,” 

“Do you have a Pokemon?”

Ethan shakes his head. “My dad’s too busy with work to fill out the forms, or more like he’s started but was never able to finish. I can’t wait when I finally do turn eighteen though,” 

“When’s your birthday?” 

“In one week exactly” he says brightly. 

Lyra’s eyes widen and a little smile pulls at her lips. “We’re born on the same day!” she says excitedly. 

“No way!”

Lyra spends the rest of the afternoon talking to Ethan about nothing and everything, until the sun starts to go down and her kneehigh socks are no longer enough to keep her warm. They agree to meet tomorrow and Ethan promises to tell her everything he knows about Johto, in exchange for her knowledge on Unova. 

Lyra goes straight to her room to avoid the usual bombardment of questions and falls asleep the moment her head hits the pillow, despite the fact it was barely past eight.

“I’m going out again today,” she announces to her parents at breakfast as they try - and fail - to pry any answers about why. 

“You should be studying, not wasting time outside,” her mom scolds. “You don’t want to fall behind with your extra work would you?”

Lyra shakes her head. “I know, I already finished my work for this week on the plane on the way here so I would be able to spend my birthday on a call with BinBin and Cher,” she says, choosing to ignore the way her parents stiffened at the mention of her upcoming birthday. 

“What do you want for your birthday anyway,” her father asks, hands gripping the book he was reading a little bit harder than necessary. 

Lyra shrugs, taking another bite of her cereal and notices her parents visibly relax. 

She drops the finished bowl in the sink, excusing herself before putting on her shoes and jogging outside. 

The next few days pass as a merged blur of the same routine, though Lyra doesn’t tire of it as much as she thought she would. Two days before her and Ethan’s shared birthday he brings a stack of papers and a few pens tucked under his arm. 

“These are the official trainer papers,” he explains. “They need a few days to be processed and are technically invalid until we turn eighteen, but my dad’s too busy to notice, and it’s not like we have a long way to go. Also,” he reaches behind him and pulls out three pokeballs. “These are the three Johto starters we can choose from. I swiped them from my dad before I left and you can choose one now instead of later,”

“You took them?” Lyra whispers, hands clasped over her mouth and eyes wide.

Ethan looks at her with furrowed brows and nods. “It’s not that bad, I’ll just put them back when I get home, he won’t even notice,” 

Lyra gapes, absolutely terrified of what her parents would think if they saw her in the company of a stealer. 

She doesn’t have much time to contemplate as Ethan releases the three starters on the grass beside them. 

Lyra’s heart absolutely melts at the sight of the three baby Pokemon looking up at her with wide eyes. 

“They're so cute,” she squeals, hands pressed to her mouth. “I’ve seen pictures but they have nothing on the real thing,” 

“Did you do any research on them?”

“Barely, I didn’t actually think I would be getting a Pokemon, it just seems like something so out of reach, you know?”

Ethan nods with a small smile. “I know what you mean,” he brightens. “That just gives me chance to explain them to you,”

He picks up the one closest to him, a little green bean looking thing with a little sprout coming out of the top of it’s head. 

“This is Chikorita the Grass-type starter. Chikorita are super sweet and loyal unless you mess with someone they care about."

He reaches for the next Pokemon, which nozzles up against his hand affectionately. 

"This is Cyndaquil the Fire-type. As you can see they are affectionate and have a little bit of a temper, but he's pretty good at controlling it," he says gesturing to the Pokemon.

"This final one," he says making no move to touch it "is Totodile. I'm not going to try and pick her up because she has a tendency of biting anything that moves and resembles close to edible,"

Lyra laughs, looking down at the little Water-type. This was the Pokemon she had done the most research on, even if they seemed like the biggest handful.

Totodile turns its head to look at her red eyes gleaming eerily in the speckled shade, giving her a toothy little grin and her heart simply melts.

Totodile makes a little raspy croak, before waddling over to Lyra and scrabbling up into her lap, leaving little red claw marks in its wake. She doesn’t find the mind to care as the Pokemon settles in her lap, tail wagging and tapping her leg. 

She looks over at Etham, whose smiling widely, absentmindedly petting the Cyndaquil nuzzling his leg. 

“She really seems to like you,” he says.

“Yeah. I guess I’ve found my starter then,” she says, letting Totodile nibble lightly on her finger. 

“Then we should get to filling out the trainer forms, they take a long time,” he says, handing her a large stack of paper. 

Filling out the forms took them the rest of the afternoon, though Lyra was slowed down considerably by Totodile, who would under no circumstances let her answer more than two questions without trying to attack her pen. 

The sun was beginning to set by the time they had finished, Lyra promising to finish the forms by the next day. 

Dinner was eerily quiet and Lyra rakes her brain to try and figure out why she deserved it.

“Lyra,” her mom starts “What were you doing with Pokemon this afternoon?”

The question stops her with a shaking fork in her hand. “I-I don’t know?” Crap that wasn’t going to help her case in the slightest. 

“First it’s Pokemon, now lying, what did we do to deserve this Lyra? What did we do wrong?” he mother says, shaking her head.

“I- nothing, the professor's son was just showing them to me incase I ever wanted to get a Pokemon,”

“So you were considering getting a Pokemon without telling us? This is exactly why we haven’t given you one yet, we were even considering getting one for your birthday, but you have to go and do this,” her father says. 

“You were considering getting me a Pokemon?” 

“Not anymore. You proved you don’t deserve one,” he says, her mother nodding in agreement. 

Lyra doesn’t know what to say, she’s dug herself too far down the rabbit hole to even hope to climb out.

Her parents don’t speak to her the rest of the evening, and Lyra doesn’t try to coax them too. She was sure her voice would fail her anyway. 

Her parents are long gone by the time she excuses herself, even though no one was there to hear her, stumbling half blind up the stairs to her room, closing the door and slumping to the floor. She brings her knees to her chest, letting her head drop to her hands as she quietly counts to herself, unconsciously rocking back and forth, as her breathing becomes more and more ragged despite her efforts. 

She jolts violently when she hears footsteps outside her room, scrambling into her bed and pulling her covers over her head. 

Her mother opens the door, footsteps easily distinguishable from her fathers heavier ones. Lyra stares at the wall and focuses on keeping her breathing as level as she can until she hears the door close again, almost able to cry from the relief alone. 

She peers over to her desk and catches a glimpse of her missing trainer forms. There is no use going after them now, her mother was probably going to throw them into the trash or use them to light the fireplace. 

She falls asleep shivering, waking up to a damp pillow.

She doesn’t leave her room that day, curled under her blankets, living off a single glass of water she had lying around her room. Every time she thinks of leaving she feels sick and panicked, stomach in knots and chest feeling unbearably tight. Barely able to crawl out of bed in the evening, she opens her laptop to answer the call from Bianca and Cheren.

A loud ‘Happy Birthday’ comes through her headphones, along with a concerning amount of party poppers and confetti on screen.  
Lyra smiles for the first time that day, waving at her friends through the screen. 

“How’s out birthday girl?” Bianca asks, smiling.

“I’m good,” 

Cheren narrows his eyes, clearly not convinced, the glimpse he got of her messy room and crumpled sheets not helping her case in the slightest. “Well what’s Jotho like then? See any new Pokemon?”

“I’ve seen three Pokemon so far, all thanks to a new friend of mine,”

“So you can make friends after all,” Cheren chides.

Lyra looks rightfully offended by his comment, thankful that Bianca smacks him in the shoulder on her behalf. 

“Anyway like I was saying,” she glares at Cheren. “Ethan - the kid I met - is the Pokemon professor's son, and he introduced me to the regional starters. They’re absolutely adorable, especially Totodile, that one’s definitely my favorite.”

They talk for about an hour, Lyra and Cheren carefully tiptoeing around certain topics, though an oblivious Bianca brings that to an abrupt halt.  
“Are you going to get yourself a Pokemon for your birthday?” she asks.

“I’ve been thinking about it,”

“What do your parents think about it? They didn’t seem to be big fans of the idea when we asked about the-”

A mortified Cheren jumps back into the frame. “Bianca!”

She turns towards him, head tilted to the side. “What? Oh! Right I wasn’t supposed to say anything,”

Lyra looks between the two of them, confusion evident on her face. 

“You should be getting something soon,” Cheren says.

As if on cue, something knocks at the window of her room. She throws open the blinds, only to be met with a large Unfezant perched on her window sill. She turns back to her laptop with wide eyes, then back to the window. “Did you guys send me Pidgey mail, with an Unfezant?” she gapes, letting the bird Pokemon into her room, where it perched prettily on her bed post, daintily sticking out his leg for Lyra to untangle the letter from his ankle. “Wait Cheren is this your Unfezant?”  
He gives her a double thumbs up. “It was Bianca’s idea, we’ll explain the details later, just open the letter,”

Lyra treats open the paper, taking a moment to appreciate the mixed baby blue and pink wax stamp used to seal the letter, shaking her head when she notices the silver Amoungus drawn on her letter. “You won’t let this go will you,”

“Nope,” Bianca says happily.

Lyra finishes unfolding the letter, expecting to get a full five pages of writing with how heavy it was. She doesn’t expect a little blue booklet the size of her hand to fall out onto the floor. Reaching down to retrieve it, she catches a glimpse of a picture of herself with a small smile on the second page. Recognition flashes over her face as she flips through the first few pages. “Did you get me a trainer passport?” she asks, voice cracking slightly. 

“Happy Birthday!” Bianca and Cheren say in unison. 

Lyra grins, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “You guys are the best, you know that?” She says finishing flipping through the passport. “How were you guys even able to do this?”

“A lot of work and a lot of favors,” says Cheren. 

Lyra laughs quietly, not wanting to wake her parents. “I wish you guys were here so I could give you a hug,” 

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to do that when you come to Unova again,” Bianca assures. “You can show us your Pokemon too!”

“I guess I can,”

“We should let you get back to sleep, it’s past midnight in Johto.”

“Alright, no need to be a parent, Cheren. Night guys,”

“Good night, call us when you get a Pokemon,” Bianca says enthusiastically. 

“I’ll make sure I do,”

When Lyra does fall asleep, it’s with the trainer passport clutched to her chest and a smile on her face. 

“Ethan! Look what I got,” Lyra says, waving the trainer passport at him. She had been able to slip out of the house without being noticed, thanks to waking up at the ungodly hour of five fifteen in the morning. 

His eyes widen with quiet realization, before he pulls out his own trainer passport. “How did you get one? My dad didn’t have to process a request,” 

“My friends from Unova sent it by Pidgey mail, or actually Unfezant mail,” 

“Like a real Unfezant? That’s so cool,” 

Lyra nods happily. “My only question is how they got a picture for a passport, because I don’t remember taking one. Ever,” 

Ethan laughs. “That’s kind of unsettling, but I’m sure there’s an explanation for it.” 

They had slowly migrated back to the Pokemon lab, Ethan opening the door and ushering her inside. 

“Dad!” he yells, wandering further into the lab. 

“Oh Ethan there you are,” What Lyra could only assume was the professor stumbles out of a room, clutching multiple stacks of precariously balanced papers. “Here take theses and go to Mr. Pokemon’s house. He says he has something for me to look at - another egg probably - and I need you to go get it” 

Ethan swipes two Pokeballs off a small table without the professor noticing, too busy ushering the two companions outside. 

Once outside, Lyra glances over at Ethan, who seemed to be unaffected by the exchange. He hands her a Pokeball with a little blue water droplet on the button.  
“This is Totodile’s Pokeball,” he explains, and the Pokeball wiggles in his hand, as if in agreement with what was being said. “We should start heading over to Mr. Pokemon’s house. It’s quite a walk and we don’t want to get stuck in the dark.”

“Don’t we need supplies? We can’t just wander around,”

Ethan shrugs. “We don’t really need anything, maybe just a potion or two which I already have. There’s a Pokemon center in Cherrygrove if we really need to heal up before continuing or on the way back.” he explains as he slowly leads her towards route 29. “We can pretty much avoid any trainers, and a repel will take care of any wild Pokemon.”

“Alright, but I’d still need to tell my parents first,” she says, stomach knotting at the thought. 

“You can just tell me if you don’t want to go, no need to make up excuses.” he says, avoiding looking at her. 

“I do want to go, I just,” she pauses, Ethan waiting patiently for her to find the right words. “I’m just nervous really. I’ve never had a Pokemon before, and what if anything happens? I’ve never even been in a battle before, I don’t know what to expect.”

His expression softens and he nods. “It’s just something you get used to. I’ve only battled with my dad’s baby Pokemon, if that even counts since I didn’t have a real opponent, but we have our Pokemon with us. They’ll help us and we’ll help each other, we’re not alone in this,” he says. 

A long pause follows after until they both burst out laughing. 

“Did you have that all planned out or did you just improv,” Lyra asks with a smile. 

“I will take no criticism of my spee-AHHH,” Ethan cuts off with a shriek, jumping a good meter in the air, and flinging off the Caterpie that had attached itself to his leg. He dashes behind Lyra, gripping her arm once again jumping back when the Pokemon begins inching towards them. “Kill it, Oh for the love of Ho-Oh get it away from me,” he sobs.

“It’s just a Caterpie,” Lyra says, honestly slightly offended on the Pokemon’s behalf.

“It’s gross and green and chunky.” he sudders. He pulls Lyra further along the path dragging her away from the Bug-type. “I never want a Bug-type on my team, ever.”

“Not even a Yanma? Their pretty cool,”

“Nope, giant flying bug, which is honestly worse than a Caterpie,”

“Maybe I’ll get a Bug-type,” Lyra muses, laughing when Ethan lets go of her and gives her a disgusted look. 

After the first encounter with a Caterpie, Ethan had sprayed an absurd amount of Repel that was able to get them to Cherrygrove easily, warding off not just Pokemon, but trainers as well. 

Ethan had been right about the walk being decently long. It takes them almost an hour to reach Cherrygrove, which was surprisingly much more animated than Newbark. Ethan explained it was because of route 30, where a lot of trainers went to train against wild Pokemon and each other. 

“Mr. Pokemon’s house is just a little further from here,” 

Ethan points out a cozy looking cottage on route 30 pinpointing it as their destination. Lyra knocks on the door, which is quickly opened by an older man with greying hair.  
“Ah, are you two the ones Elm sent? Come in, come in, please make yourselves at home.” he says, ushering the two companions inside. 

The house was cozy, if a little cramped. A large couch was stationed in the corner, and bookshelves lined with various hardcover books. Mr. Pokemon excuses himself while he goes to get whatever it was that he needed to give to professor Elm. 

They sit on the couch quietly, both jolting slightly when the front door opens unannounced. 

Another older man comes through the door - what was it with old men today - saying he was also looking for Mr. Pokemon. 

Ethan stared at him slack jawed, while Lyra sat there, admittedly more than a little confused. 

“Wai- are you- are you professor Oak?” Ethan asks, jumping up from his place on the couch. 

“Why yes, you must be Elm’s boy then,” 

He nods. “It’s nice to meet you”

“Who is this then? I don’t believe I’ve met you before,” 

“My name is Lyra, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” she says, remembering to bow a little too late. 

“You’re not from Johto are you?” says professor Oak with a smile.

The tips of her ears go red and she laughs nervously, “It’s that obvious, huh”

“Not as obvious as you think,” says Mr. Pokemon, who had walked back into the room carrying a white and green speckled egg in one hand. 

“I didn’t even notice until Oak pointed it out, I’d just assumed you weren’t from such a small town, though it’s my own fault for not getting out enough,” he says with a chuckle. “I wanted Elm to look at this egg, though if two aren’t in a rush you could stay for a cup of tea,”

“Thank you for the offer but we don’t want to get stuck on route 29 in the dark,” Ethan says, gently taking the egg from Mr. Pokemon and helping Lyra maneuver it into her bag.

“You two are new trainers, yes? Here take these, they should help you on your journey,” Oak says, handing them two red cellphone looking devices. “Their Pokedex’s. Any new Pokemon you encounter will be registered in it, along with any information on Pokemon you catch.”

Lyra opens it, scrolling through the list before coming to Totodile’s page, her information already registered on the page, along with two blank Pokeball icons behind her for her evolutions. She’s surprised to see that even the Caterpie she had encountered this morning was there. 

“Wow, thank you,” she says “these are awesome, right Ethan?”

“Yeah, thank you so much,” Ethan agrees. “Well now we should really be going now, nice meeting the both of you, see you around,” he says with a wave to Lyra’s mortification. 

The moment their outside earshot of the two men Lyra turns to Ethan with wide eyes. 

“Ethan you can’t just say see you around to people like that,” She says.

“Why?”

“You have to show them respect, it’s manners,” 

He shrugs. “They didn’t seem to mind though, and anyway it can’t be that bad.”

Lyra would have continued, but Ethan’s phone began to ring. He quickly answers it, and Lyra catches the voice of a panicked professor Elm shouting through the phone. 

“What did the professor say,” Lyra asks.

“Just that we should come back to the lab as fast as we can,” he sighs, looking over at her “Do you mind if I go ahead? I don’t want you to run with the egg incase anything happens, but it’s a straight shot to New Bark, so you shouldn’t get lost,”

Lyra nods, and Ethan quickly takes off. She follows behind a bit more slowly, more worried about hurting the egg than anything. 

She passes another trainer around her age, with flaming red hair and an annoyed expression. Without warning Totodile jumps out of its pokeball, snapping at the trainer's ankle. 

Lyra lunges for the pokemon, securing in in her arms before she starts apologizing. 

“I’m so sorry I don’t know what got into her,” she says, looking up at the trainer. 

“You got a pokemon at the lab, what a waste.” 

Lyra stops her apology and gapes. 

“That’s a pokemon that’s too good for a wimp like you,”

Lyra grits her teeth but bites her tongue. She souldn’t get gauded into something she might regret later. She needs to get back to the lab and doesn’t have time for this, no matter how much she wants to punch his teeth in. 

“Don’t you get what i’m saying? You’ll never get anywhere when a pokemon is too good for their trainer,”

She looks over at him with a smile and in the most sincere voice she can muster says “I’m sorry but what do you want?”

“A Pokemon battle obviously. How dense do you have to be not to know that,”

Lyra looks down at the Totodile in her arms who had been fixing the red head with her own stare. 

“Alright Totodile want to teach this guy a lesson?” The Totodile makes a noise in what Lyra can only interpret as agreement as she places her pokemon back on the ground. 

“Fine I’ll take you on,”

The trainer smirks and takes a pokeball from his pocket, sending out his pokemon in a flash of red light. 

“Chikori” says the little Chikorita, the same one that had been in the lab. She doesn’t remember Ethan mentioning anyone else getting a Pokemon, maybe that’s what professor Elm had been calling them? To warn them about the asshole that was Chikorita’s trainer. 

Lyra thinks for a moment, almost completely sure that a Chikorita of that level only knew normal type moves, therefore wouldn’t have anything super effective, and the two trainers were on even footing. 

“Totodile use Scratch”

“Chikorita use Growl”

The Chikorita makes a little noise, that sounded awfully close to it’s usual cry, if slightly deeper, while Totodile lunges at it and lands the Scratch.  
“Totodile use Scratch again”

“Chikorita use Tackle,”  
Lyra shoots a self satisfied smirk to the other trainer when she finds out that Totodile is somehow barely  
faster than the Chikorita and is able to land it’s Scratch first, ending the battle as the Grass type makes a pitiful noise and returns to its pokeball.  
Totodile turns around and gives her a toothy grin before returning without fuss into its pokeball. 

“Humph you did pretty well for someone weak,” 

“Whatever you say Simisear,”

“What in Ho-Oh’s name is a Simisear,”

Lyra snorts, not dignifying him with a response. 

The trainer gave her a sour look before handing her 500 pokedollars, turning on his heel and heading to Cherrygrove. Lyra swore she saw a dark thunder cloud over his head as he walked away, seeing something shiny fall out of his pocket onto the road. Lyra waits a moment and when she’s sure he definitely hadn’t noticed, she goes and picks it up. 

It was a white card with various amounts of trainer information that clearly belonged to him. The name it was registered under was Silver, so she decided it wouldn’t hurt to try and give it back to him, though a little part of her wanted to throw it into the abyss never to be seen again.

“Hey Silver, you dropped this”

He stops in his tracks and whips around, eyes zeroing in on the card in her hand. He storms back to her, eyes murderous and snatches the card. 

“Don’t take my shit weirdo,” he spits, turning the card over to inspect it. 

“Then maybe don’t drop it,” Lyra snaps back. This guy truly had a way to grate on her nerves. 

He grimaces but doesn’t try to apologize, simply turning around again and leaving. 

“Brat,” Lyra murmurs under her breath, continuing back to New Bark town.

She had expected the lab to be in utter chaos, maybe on fire, but definitely not the police. An officer was talking to Ethan who was explaining that he had seen a red haired boy looking in through the window a little while ago, and that he could be a possible suspect. 

“I just battled someone like that on route 29,” Lyra offers.

“Did you happen to get any information, a name, or anything that could be useful in an investigation?” the officer asks. 

Lyra nods. “He dropped his trainer ID and the name it was registered under was Silver,”

“Alright thank you for your help, I promise we’ll do all we can to find this Silver, so don’t worry yourself too much professor,” the officer assures. 

“Thank you,” 

The officer nods and heads off, the professor collapsing in a chair with a groan. 

“My best raised pokemon so far, up and taken, what on earth is going on today,”

Ethan pulled Lyra outside, leaving the professor to complain to no one in particular. 

“Sorry about roping you into this, probably wasn’t how you saw yourself starting out on your journey,” he apologizes, gingerly rubbing the back of his neck. 

“It was” Lyra pauses for a moment “a lot different than I expected, but it wasn’t all bad, I got a pokemon, and a new friend so I’m not complaining,” 

Ethan’s face lights up at the mention of a friend, and offers a bright smile.

“Now as your new friend, I’m going to need you to tell me what that Silver guy was like,” he says. 

Lyra begins a long winded explanation that takes around fifteen minutes to fully explain. Ethan was laughing the whole way through, practically wheezing at the facial expressions Lyra threw into her explanation. 

“Aw man I hope I’m there next time, it sounds like it was awesome,”

“It was pretty great,” Lyra admits with a little smile of her own. A sudden chill hits her and she shivers looking up at the sky, surprised that the sun was already going down. “I should probably be going home, it’s starting to get dark,”

“Wait, I have a quick question” Lyra turns back to him “Summer break is officially starting tomorrow, so I wanted to ask you if you wanted to travel together, at least for a little bit,”

“Travel, where?”

He shrugs. “Around I guess. Get Gym badges, maybe make it all the way to the League if we’re lucky,”

“I, that sounds like a lot of fun,” she says. “I need to talk to my parents about it though,”

He nods. “Just call me tomorrow with your answer, I’m planning on leaving sometime in the morning, but don’t let me pressure you into a decision,”

Lyra nods, shivering again. “I’d better get home before I turn into a popsicle and you end up having to drag me around Johto,” 

“Oh and do some research,” he shouts after her. 

She waves her thanks and jogs back to her house. 

“Oh Lyra dear your back,” says her mom with a smile. “How was your day?”

Lyra begins a long explanation of everything that had happened in the few hours she had been away from home. She left out a few details, like meeting Silver, the stolen pokemon from the lab, or anything in general that gave them a hint about what she was planning to ask them. 

Knowing her parents, she would have to be very careful with how she worded her question, lest they jump to conclusions and shut her down instantly.  
She picked at her food, deciding it was not going to help her to delay the inevitable. 

“Mom, Dad, I’ve been thinking, the professor said that he had three starter pokemon that were looking for homes,” she pauses, internally wincing at the hard stare her father was giving her over his newspaper. “I was thinking that since I haven’t found a university in Johto yet, I could go out on a journ-”  
“Absolutely not,” her father says. 

“But wh-”

“You are going to focus on your studies and are not going to waste an opportunity for extra learning by going around with this pokemon nonsense,”

“The problem is,” she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, skin itching from her parents burning stares. “The professor kind of, already gave me a pokemon when i went out today,”

She closes her eyes taking a deep breath, waiting for her parents to completely combust, already seeing herself getting sternly talked, no yelled, to about how irresponsible she was, or about not consulting them before, how she was an ungrateful evil child.

Totodile’s Pokeball stills in her pocket, and she hopes that she doesn’t decide to hop out like she did with Silver. 

The deafening silence was somehow worse, Lyra risking squinting her eyes open to her dad throwing down his newspaper and storming out of the room, and her mom shaking her head with pursed lips as she went after him. 

She excuses herself from the table and goes up to her room, dropping down onto her bed and curling up into a ball, back to the wall and face to the door. Her eyes are screwed shut, and even though she hasn't her footsteps outside she jerks wildly when she feels something touch her head. Her arms shield her head on impulse, a little indignant noise coming from whatever touched her. 

After a deep breath she cracks her eyes open, finding herself looking at Totodile, sitting on her bed with her head tilted and mouth slightly agape.  
“Hey girl,” Lyra says, voice raspier than she would have liked. “I’m fine don’t worry about me,” 

Totodile makes an offended noise, nuzzling against her cheek in the closest thing to a kiss it could manage. 

Lyra bites back a sob, placing her own kiss on Totodile’s head, before propping herself up and grabbing her laptop. 

Totodile climbs into her lap, content to watch her do whatever she wants to do. 

“Let’s give you a nickname,” Lyra decides, picking up the Pokemon. “How about,” she trails off for a moment before her eyes light up. “Casanova,” 

Totodile makes a sound of approval, before twisting in Lyra’s arms and having her place her back in her lap. 

Lyra spends a good portion of the night researching Johto, the Pokemon, the customs, the people, everything. It had never interested her before, but now she truly wanted to learn all she could about it. 

Nearing midnight she fell down a rabbit hole about Team Rocket. She had heard hushed whispers while she was in Unova, but her parents had deemed her too young to understand, and she never pressed further. 

Video after video explained what they were about though vague and all mentioning that they were stopped and that Jotho was safe. The only video that gave her what she could call close to facts was a blurry video of when they had infiltrated Silph Co. Storming the building in black uniforms it was easy to identify who their leader was. Also in black, he wore a suit and grey turtle neck, barking fuzzy orders that she couldn’t quite catch with the quality of the video. 

Totodile had begun to be restless, gnawing on anything that so much as moved. 

“Casanova” the Pokemon looks at her with wide eyes. “Want to go on an adventure?”


	2. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sneaking out, towers and bird have something in common. Somehow.

She decided to try her luck and see if Ethan was still awake. Plugging in her headphones and dialing his Poketech number, she waited with baited breath until a groggy ‘yeah’ came from the other line.

“Ethan, I need your help, I’m coming with you tomorrow, but my parents won’t let me, and I need you to help me sneak out.”

A long pause, then a sigh.

“I’ll be there in twenty, get your bag ready,”

“Thanks! You’re the best,” 

“I better be” he grumbles, “Waking me up in the middle of the night, shesh,” 

Lyra chuckles quietly.

“Call me when you get here,” she says.

“Alright, leave your window open so I know which one is yours.” he says before Lyra hangs up. 

She quietly opens her door, being mindful of the creaky floorboard on the way to the bathroom. She grabs a little bag of toiletries and stuffs them under her shirt, listening for any movement in the hall. 

When she hears nothing, she sneaks back to her room, grabbing a backpack that she used on camping trips in Unova and starts grabbing anything she thought she might need. Several changes of clothes, her Poketech, the journal she had just made, along with a map of the region. She rummages around her desk, pulling out a little Meowth piggy bank. She pulls off the amulet off the top of it’s head and puts all the money into a little Garboater wallet her friends had gotten her as a gag gift.

A quiet thump from behind her and she’s running to the window, waving to Ethan two floors down. 

He waves the Poketech and Lyra scrambles to go pick it up off her bed. 

“Alright I need you to listen carefully. Do you have anything that can be used as rope? A large bedsheet, long drapes, anything.”

“I have a bedsheet, but you need to promise you won’t make fun of it.” she says.

“I promise nothing,” he replies, a smile evident in his voice. “But I need you to loop it around something that could hold your weight,” 

“Would a bed post work?”

A pause.

“Yeah I think so,” 

“Reassuring” Lyra mumbles under her breath.“Well sorry I haven’t done this in a while,”

This time Lyra pauses, then shakes her head to get her back to the task at hand. She’ll ask him what that means later, she’ll be traveling with him for a while anyway.   
She ties the bedsheet to the post, throwing it out the window, slightly apprehensive since it only reaches the first floor window, and not all the way to the ground.   
“Okay now climb down with whatever you want to take with you,”

She slings the backpack over her shoulder, looking one more time around her room before swinging her legs out the window and lowering herself as much as she could with the help of the bed sheet.

“Ok there is a bit of a drop here,” Ethan says quietly to her right.

She looks down and he is standing a little way off, the drop to the ground only being a little over a meter, which was surprisingly a lot less than she had expected.   
Her feet land in the grass with a quiet thud, sticking her arms out to avoid falling over. 

“You look like a chicken,” he snorts. 

“Nice to see you too.” she grumbles. “Now what?”

“Now we go towards Violet City,”

“Why?”

“Site of the closest Gym, and there isn’t anywhere else we can go unless we want to go through Victory Road, which would absolutely wipe the floor with us.”   
As they walk Ethan explains that they will probably be spending the night in tents and the rooms at the Pokemon center, though they should be careful at the start especially since her parents might come looking for her.

“What about your dad? Won’t he be worried that you up and left,”

A wistful expression passes over Ethan’s face but he shakes his head.

“Ha, my dad is too obsessed with his research, it’ll be a least a week before he even notices I’m gone,”

“I’m sorry,”

He shrugs, forcing a pained smile.

“It’s fine, I’m used to it by now,”

Lyra doesn’t know what to say, he had shared something so personal with her, hell she met him less than a week ago. Her voice sticks in her throat and she simply nods dumbly. Should she open up to him as well? No, she had too many issues that he shouldn’t be burdened with.

“We should probably keep going past Cherrygrove, we can stop once we get to route 30 we can set up a tent and sleep for a little bit,”

“Sounds good,”

The rest of the walk is silent, both trainers letting out their pokemon as they walked to avoid the use of limited Repels. 

They walk the rest of the night and good portion of the day, only stopping to eat quick meals of ramen that they had gotten from the Pokemon center. The sun was beginning to set when Ethan finally declared they could stop for some sleep. They wander into the forest, easily finding a flattened piece of ground perfect for a makeshift campsite. Ethan and Lyra set up their tents with relative ease, their Pokemon sticking to the edges of the campsite when they get the faint scent of Repel. 

“Don’t worry you guys, we’re done with Repels for now. I don’t think I can take anymore of whatever fumes are in there,” Lyra says, dropping a few sticks onto their slowly accumulating pile. 

“Lyra could you go look for firewood? I can start setting up for dinner,” Ethan says. 

Lyra nods. “Casanova, let's go find some more firewood,” the moment she finishes Casanova has already dashed into a bush, bringing back a pile of sticks between her jaws. Lyra crouches down and scratches under her chin, Totodile making a noise close to purring in the back of her throat. 

With Casanova helping, finding a good amount of firewood is easy, and with Cyndaquil’s help they are able to light a fire with ease. 

Lyra sits close to the fire, hands extended towards it to try and get some feeling back into her fingers.

Ethan had gotten some bread and canned soup from the Pokemon center when Lyra hadn’t been looking.  
“Cheers to our adventure,” he toasts, lifting up his can of soup. 

“Cheers,” Lyra agrees, and watches in abject horror as Ethan drowns all the broth in his can easily. 

Lyra’s limbs feel like lead when she climbs into her sleeping bag, Totodile crawling in beside her and snuggling up to her chest. 

She wakes up a long time before dawn, crawling out of the tent quietly to not wake Casanova, sitting down on the ground beside their makeshift fire pit. The forest was eerily quiet, though it was calming in a strangely morbid way, not a single other soul out and about. 

When the sun finally did rise, staining the clouds a dusty pink, she felt safe. It was a strange sort of feeling, like she wasn’t completely there while being only there.   
By the time Ethan wakes up she is able to get the fire going with Cyndaquil's help. Totodile dashes out of Lyra’s tent in a frenzy, dashing straight into her arms. 

“Sorry girl did I scare you?” Lyra asks, gently petting the Pokemon. Casanova makes an annoyed noise, lifting its arms like a toddler and snapping until Lyra picked her up and placed her in her hat. “You gonna sit there for the rest of the day?” 

“Toto,” she says.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” 

The closer it got to noon, and the closer they got to VIolet City, the more trainers there were. They were easily avoidable but Ethan and Lyra both challenged a few, more for the prize money than anything. 

Right before they enter through the gate, they fall into step beside a blue-clad trainer who gives them a friendly smile and wave, the Pidgey on his shoulder chirping happily. 

Ethan and Lyra both stop a few steps through the gate glancing at each other.

“Do you know how to get to the Pokemon center? Cause I don’t,” asks Lyra.

“I don’t have a clue,”

“Well that’s just great,” 

“You two look kind of lost, need some help?” the trainer with a Pidgey asks, walking up beside them. He shifts uncomfortably when they both stare at him.

“Could you point us to the Pokemon centre please?” 

The trainer looks taken aback by how fast Lyra accepted his offer, scratching the back of his neck with a timid smile.

“I could just take you there, I’m heading that way anyway,” 

“That would be great, thanks!” Lyra beams. 

“O-oh it’s no problem,” 

The Pokemon centre wasn’t very far from the gate, they probably would have been able to find it eventually, though with the trainers help they found it in a matter of minutes. 

Ethan smiles widely as they enter, fists raised in the air. “Food!” 

Lyra gives him an unimpressed look before turning to face the trainer who had helped them. “Let us treat you to lunch as thanks,” 

He flushes, the tips of his ears turning a bright shade of crimson. “That’s really not necessary,”

Ethan gives him a sympathetic look. “Better just agree, once she’s made up her mind she won’t change it, and we don’t mind,”

The trainer opens his mouth to protest, but thinks better of it, awkwardly following Lyra and Ethan as they lead him to a table.

Once they're settled, Casanova finally climbs out of Lyra’s hat, Ethan releasing his Cyndaquil as well, letting them play underneath their table, the blue-clad trainer letting his Pidgey join the mix twittering happily. 

Lyra looks panicked for a moment before turning to the trainer. “I can’t believe I forgot to introduce myself, my name's Lyra and this is Ethan,” she says, pointing over at Ethan who gives a little wave. 

“My name’s Falkner, nice to meet the both of you,” he says, Ethan’s eyes widening slightly. 

“There’s a Gym here right?”

Ethan nods, a mischievous smile flashing over his face. “Yeah, I’ve heard that the Gym leader is quite attractive actually,”

Falkner chokes on his drink Ethan leaning over and patting him on the back. 

“I’m fine, thank you,” he rasps, eyes watering. 

“That just gives more reason to challenge the Gym sooner,” Lyra muses once Falkner’s recovered. “Do you know what kind of Pokemon the Gym leader uses.”

“Flying-types,” Falkner answers, eyes fixed on his glass. 

Lyra’s eyes widen and she quickly pulls a brown journal from her bag, furiously flipping though it’s pages, until she finds what she's looking for. “Casanova,” she calls to her Pokemon who had been jumping after Falkner’s Pidgey as it flutters just out of reach. “What do you think about getting a new teammate?”

Casanova shakes her head, running over and clinging to Lyra’s leg protectively. 

Lyra sighs, leaning over to stroke the Pokemon’s head. “I’m sorry but you don’t have a type advantage in this Gym, and just think, you’ll get to make a new friend.” she lowers her voice. “But between you and me you’ll always be the best,” 

This seems to somewhat console the Pokemon, who unlatches from Lyra’s leg, begrudgingly waddling after her as she grabs her little travel bag. 

“Ethan watch my stuff while I’m gone please,” she calls over her shoulder.

“Will do,” he replies, waving after her. “Well Falkner have any tips for beating the Gym leader,”

Falkner smiles. “If I told you that wouldn’t be fair,” 

Ethan shrugs. “Guess you’re right,”

After going in circles for longer than she would like to admit, Lyra was able to stumble upon route 36. It took awhile to find the Pokemon she was looking for, though it gave her a great chance to train up Casanova. It was late afternoon by the time she finally found the Pokemon she was looking for. 

“Alright Casanova see that,” she whispers, pointing at the blue and black feline-esc Pokemon wandering around in a little patch of grass. “That’s our new teammate.”   
Totodile nods in affirmation, making a little sound to get the Pokemon’s attention. 

Lyra immediately throws a Quickball, because she was not going to give it any chance to run away. 

The ball wobbles once.

Then again.

Again.

Before stilling with a satisfying click. Lyra picks it up with a smile, opening up her Pokedex.

The screen read:  
Shinx: The extension and contraction of its muscles generates electricity. Its fur glows when it's in trouble.  
Lyra releases the little Pokemon, who turns in a circle before trotting up and sniffing Lyra’s outstretched hand, gladly munching on the Oran berry she gave it. 

“Hi Shinx, welcome to the team,” 

The Shinx turns to her making a little sound that was awfully close to a purr. 

She glances between her two Pokemon, and sighs. It seems that she would have to do quite a bit more training before Shinx was ready to take on the Gym.   
The sun is setting by the time she goes back to the Pokemon centre. Lyra panics when she sees her bags missing, and Ethan nowhere to be found. Nurse Joy assures her that Ethan was the one moving the bags, along with Falkner’s help. Lyra doesn’t think to ask why Nurse Joy knows him by name, though the question comes up right before she’s able to fall asleep. 

The next few days are spent training and exploring the city before both of them feel ready to take on the Gym.   
The gym was somehow even bigger on the inside than the outside, though Lyra really didn’t feel like trying to figure out what kind of god forsaken magic made that possible. 

An older man dressed in beige, with large sunglasses stands on a platform as the two companions walk in. 

“Yo! Champs in the making! You must be here to challenge, Falkner, the Gym leader, right? You are quite welcome.... Almost! This city has a tower called Sprout Tower where trainers come to train themselves. Challenging Falkner may be too difficult if you haven’t gone through their training. Hahaha!” 

The two companions stand in shocked silence as they’re ushered out of the Gym, looking at each other in confusion. 

“What just happened?” Lyra finally asks once she’s had a moment to process. “And just to make sure I heard that right, he did say that Falkner was the Gym leader right? As in the guy we met on our first day here?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah I probably should have told you sooner, I asked him on the first day here if he was the same Falkner who was the Gym leader. That sort of explains the Pidgey he had though, doesn’t it?”

“You knew!?” 

“I live here,” Ethan deadpans. “Of course I know who the Gym leaders are. I had to do something while I was at home without a Pokemon,”

“You’ve never left Newbark before?”

Ethan shakes his head. “No, but I’m glad I did, it got boring after a while, but now I’m out here on an adventure with a friend and I get to discover Johto,” He scrunches up his nose once he’s finished talking. “Well that got sappy,”

Lyra laughs. “Speaking of sap we should go to Sprout Tower if we want to challenge the Gym today,”

Ethan groans. “You did not just make a sap pun,” 

Lyra grins. “Maybe, but do you know how to get there?”

“Yeah, Falkner showed me on the first day we were here,”

“Did you two have a date?”

“Says the person who asked him to dinner before they even knew his name,”

“Touche,” 

The Tower was in the north part of town, past two bridges with a quaint little island in between. Quite a few people had set up little picnic blankets on the island, some going as far as bringing small grills for a potluck of sorts. 

The Tower had to be at least ten stories high, Lyra estimated as they entered the wooden building. They were both apprehensive once they entered and noticed the single support beam in the building swinging from side to side. 

An older kind looking woman at the bottom told them it was because people were battling their hardest inside the Tower, though it only gave the companions more second thoughts. 

“I guess I’ll see you at the top then?” Lyra says.

Ethan nods. “Don’t fall.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” Lyra says dryly. 

Shinx, which Lyra had decided would be named Sunny, was able to take care of the monks Bellsprouts with relative ease - and a few potions - while Casanova’s Pokeball rattled impatiently in her bag. 

“I’ll let you battle soon girl,” she promises, resting a reassuring hand on the ball’s shining surface. 

After twelve more floors, Lyra all but collapses in happiness when she notices she finally made it to the top of the Tower. 

After she catches her breath, she pushes off the wall she was clutching for support and wanders into a large empty room, white lines painted along the floor.   
Lyra spots a piece of rope in the corner picking it up and placing it in her bag. 

The elder that another monk had mentioned was standing opposite her with a warm smile. “So good of you to come here,” he says. “Sprout Tower is a place of training. People and Pokemon test their bonds to build a bright future together. I am the final test. Allow me to check the ties between you and your Pokemon,”

She smiles awkwardly and nods. “Okay,”

The elder sends out a Bellsprout, while Lyra sends out Sunny. 

“Sunny use Thunder Fang,” Lyra says.

“Bellsprout use Growth,”

Sunny quickly lands a hit on the Bellsprout, trapping it between his jaws while quickly electrocuting it, and trotting happily back to Lyra to wait for his next instructions. 

“Sunny another Thunder Fang,”

“Bellsprout use Vine Whip,” 

The little sprout’s roots extend and reach for Sunny, cracking loudly against the wood where the little Pokemon was just standing. Shinx is able to dodge around the roots and electrocute the sprout again, making a triumphant noise as the little sprout wilts slightly and is recalled by it’s trainer. 

The elder sends out a Hoothoot, Lyra quickly pulling out her Pokedex to get a little information on the Pokemon. It was apparently a Flying-type - which she could tell just by looking at the thing - and the best thing would be to let Sunny try to either take it out or paralyze it so Casanova could come out safely. 

Lyra looks down at her Pokemon, giving it a little nod. Shinx quickly whirls around to face the opposing Pokemon, lunging at it with his teeth bared. The Hoothoot makes a shrill sound as Shinx is able to bite at its leg, prematurely having to let go and escape from the owl’s sharp beak. 

Lyra winces and has to remind herself that she wasn’t allowed to rush to her Pokemon’s side during a battle, no matter how painful the attack looked.   
“Hang in there Sunny,” she calls. “One more Thunder Fang, I know you can do it,” 

“Hoothoot, Peck again,”

Shinx is able to steady itself and lunge for the Pokemon, jumping over it to sink his teeth is the back of its round body. 

The Hoothoot makes a pitiful squeal as it crumples, foot still firmly gripping the wood floor with wicked looking talons, while its head falls against the floor.   
The elder recalls this Pokemon as well, and pulls out what Lyra assumes is his last Pokemon. 

Shinx had taken a fair bit of damage, his fur ruffled and clumped in places, panting heavily. Lyra beckons the little Pokemon towards her, returning it in a flash of red light, letting Casanova finally battle.

She all but bursts out of her Pokeball, running in quick circles and jumping happily. 

Spotting the Bellsprout on the other end of the battlefield, she glances to Lyra to get confirmation to attack, and lunges at the Bellsprout, gripping it between her jaws, violently shaking it from side to side. 

The elder quickly returns his Pokemon when he notices that Casanova has no intention of letting it go. 

“The way you battle is quite elegant. I am confident you shall be able to take on Falkner, and make sure you use this wisely,” the elder says, handing Lyra a small disk with the words; TM70: Flash. “Technical Machines and Hidden Machines will teach you Pokemon moves that will be useful on your journey, use them wisely,”   
“Thank you very much, I’ll be sure to use them,” she looks around the room quickly, spotting Casanova gnawing on a piece of wood she found lying on the ground. “Is it alright if I stay here while I wait for a friend? We promised to meet up here,”

He nods. “Of course,” 

About a half an hour passes before a panting Ethan collapses on the floor beside where Lyra was sitting and brushing out Shinx’s fur, Casanova inhaling the berry Lyra had given her. Once he recovered enough to stand, his battle began. 

Cyndaquil is easily able to take out the two Bellsprouts, though the Hoothoot proved to be more of a problem. Eventually his Pokemon was able to scrape by with the help of a Potion. He is also rewarded with a TM and the permission to challenge Falkner. Ethan asks the elder a quiet question, who nods and replies in the same low whisper. “Back to the Gym,” he announces once they get outside. “Again.”

“It’s late,” Lyra protests, glancing at her phone. “I’m not challenging the Gym in the middle of the night. Are they even open at night?”

“Naw, they closed already, the Gym leaders need to sleep,” 

Lyra hums in agreement.

“Head to the Centre without me, I’m gonna get something quickly,” 

“Was that what you were asking the elder about?” Lyra asks and Ethan nods. She doesn’t pry, heading towards the Pokemon Centre, unable to glance back after him, only to see him slip down a side street and disappear. 

The hostels in the Pokemon centre were surprisingly big, big enough to fit around twelve trainers and their Pokemon comfortably. What she didn’t expect to see when she opened her door was a group of squealing teens surrounding a very surprised and somewhat apprehensive Falkner, sitting on the bottom bunk of Ethan and Lyra’s shared bed. 

His face lights up when he spots Lyra, silently mouthing ‘HELP’ when the little group turns their backs to him. 

They quickly disperse as Lyra goes to sit beside him. “What was that?” she whispers. 

Falkner shakes his head, looking as confused as she felt. “I have no idea.” he takes a quick glance at the group which had migrated to a corner of the room, casting sour looks in Lyra’s direction. “But thanks for the help,” he pauses. “Weren’t you going to challenge the Gym today?”

“Yeah but this guy in beige told us to go to Sprout Tower before we challenged you,” 

Falkner groans, dropping his face in his hands. “I’m so sorry about him, I should have warned you,”

Lyra laughs. “Well it’s not like you can go back in time, right? It gave us a chance to train anyway, so I wouldn’t say it was all bad, though,” she lowers her voice, Falkner having to lean closer to her to hear the rest of what she says. “He was kind of weird,” 

Falkner laughs, and abruptly stops when the door is thrown open by Ethan, who’s eyes go from them to the little group. “Who the hell are you kids?” he blurts.

“That’s none of your business,” one of the girls snaps. 

“It’s my fucking buisuness when your in my room, now get,” he says, arms crossed over his chest as he glares daggers in their direction. 

The group scurries out of the room, and Ethan collapses on the bed beside Lyra and Falkner. 

“Lyra why didn’t you tell me that catching a Pokemon was so hard,” he whines, draping an arm over his face. 

“So that’s what you were doing,” 

“I figured that if I could barely beat the elder with only Cyndaquil, I probably wouldn’t be able to defeat Falkner, so another teammate sounded like a good idea,”  
“What did you catch?” Falkner cuts in. 

Ethan snorts. “I’m not telling you, that’ll be unfair,” 

“Guess I’ll see tomorrow then,”

“Guess you will,” 

Ethan and Lyra wake up early the next morning, sitting in the lobby of the Pokemon Centre as they drink coffee and tea respectively, their Pokemon scarfing down kibble as though they had been starved. 

When they enter the Gym, they’re both relieved to see that whoever the man in beige was is gone, leaving a platform open for them to stand on. With both of them on the platform, it began to move upwards, carrying them up to the precarious - not at all legally approved - wood beams suspended in the air. 

Ethan starts off without a care, while Lyra resolutely sits on the platform and refuses to move. Her head feels dizzy and the world momentarily spins in front of her eyes, shifting in and out of focus. 

A blur of blue sits beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, to which she flinches, the spinning slowly coming to a halt and showing a worried Falkner. 

“Don’t like heights?” he asks gently.

She nods, taking a deep breath. 

“I’ll help you across,” he says.

“No. No way, I am not walking on that,” 

“You can always come back another day,”

“Can’t we just have a battle on the ground?” She tries to reason.

Falkner looks sympathetic but shakes his head. “You have to go through the obstacles the Gym places or your challenge doesn’t count,” 

Lyra groans, dropping her head in her lap. She mumbles something illegible into her knees, before looking back up at Falkner. “Help?”

He smiles, standing up and offering her his hand. She gladly takes it, almost missing how he averts his eyes for a moment. She leans towards the edge of the platform, wanting to see what she’s gotten herself into, but Falkner quickly pulls her away.

“Don’t. It won’t help. You’ll keep your eyes on me while we cross,” he says, eyes widening when he notices what he’s said. He flushes furiously. “I - not like - you don’t - just don’t look down,” he stammers out, covering his face with his free hand. 

Lyra watches with a small smile as he continues mumbling.

“I’m not really helping my case am I?” he says finally, avoiding meeting her eyes. 

“Not really, but I don’t mind. Looking at you sounds a lot better than looking down,” 

His hand is back on his face, though it does nothing to hide how red his ears have become, and he mumbles a ‘thank you’. 

Lyra glances at the far platform, catching Ethan making gagging motions and gesturing vaguely in the direction towards her and Falkner. 

“Let’s go,” she says.

Falkner’s hand drops from his face and he looks surprised at her sudden courage, but asks no questions. 

“Alright, try to step where I step and it’ll be over in no time.” Falkner assures, offering her his other hand. 

He slowly leads her out onto the suspended beams, Lyra having to snap her eyes closed and inch her way forward with Falkners instructions alone.  
“There’s a curve here… bring your foot forward a little… no back… there, now put your weight on it and bring your other foot right in front, almost done,” 

When Falkner finally tells her that she’s reached the end platform, Lyra crumbles onto the floor with a grateful sob. 

“Please tell me I don’t have to do that again,” Lyra says, turning pleading eyes on Falkner. 

He smiles. “No there’s another platform that brings you down when you finish your Gym battle,” 

“Oh thank Ho-Oh. Why are you both looking at me like that?” 

“We’re just waiting for you to be ready to start your Gym battle,” Ethan says. 

“Why? Can’t you do yours?”

He gives her a confused look. “I already finished my challenge”

Lyra’s eyes go wide, and she twists herself around to glance at the platform she started on. “How long was I there?”

“Long enough for me to finish my Gym battle. Twice.” 

“Twice!” she scrambles to push herself up off the floor. “Crap I’m sorry about this Falkner,”

“Don’t worry yourself, it’s happened more times than you think,” he assures, taking his place on one end of the battlefield. 

A referee that Lyra hadn’t noticed stepped into the middle of the battlefield, announcing that they should both bring out their desired first Pokemon. 

“Go Casanova,”

“Pidgey, fly high,” 

“The official Gym battle between Gym leader Falkner and Trainer Lyra will now commence,” the referee declares, blowing a shrill whistle that makes Lyra’s ears ring.

“Pidgey use Sand-Attack,” Falkner shouts.

“Casanova, use Bite,”

Casanova lunges for the Pidgey, landing her attack, but getting sand splashed in her eyes in the proces, stumbling back and using her little paws to rub at her eyes as she stumbles back. 

Casanova’s Bite was able to bring the Pidgey closer to the ground, and Lyra was sure that she would be able to take down the other Pokemon. 

“Casanova one more Bite,”

“Pidgey use Tackle,” 

Casanova is able to squint her eyes open enough to be able to lunge at the Pidgey, grabbing onto the Pokemon with her strong jaws. 

The Pokemon makes a little sound before Falkner returns it, bringing out another Pokeball. 

Casanova might have some trouble, so Lyra sends Sunny out in her place, while Falkner sends out a Pidgeotto. 

“Sunny use Thunder Fang,” 

“Pidgeotto use Gust,” 

Shinx is able to tough out the strong wind that Pidgeotto stirred up before lunging at the other Pokemon and giving a strong electric shock. The shock is so strong it’s able to momentarily paralyze the opposing Pokemon and give Sunny the chance to land another Thunder Fang, and lets Lyra win her first Gym battle. 

“The winner is Trainer Lyra,” states the referee. 

Falkner smiles and returns his Pokemon, coming over to shake Lyra’s hand. 

“That was a great battle, now these are yours,” He hands her another disk, this one engraved with TM:50 Roost and a little light blue U-shaped badge. “This is the Zephyr badge and is just proof that you beat the Gym, and is one of the eight you need to enter the Pokemon league. Though you probably already knew that.”

“Thank you,” she says, turning to Ethan. “Now what?”

He shrugs. “I guess we go towards the next Gym,”

“That would be in Azalea Town,” says Falkner.

“Please tell me there aren’t more heights,” Lyra says. “I don’t think I can deal with any more of those.”

Falkner gives her a mischievous grin. “You’re going to have to find out for yourselves. I’ll tell Bugsy to watch out for you, they’ll be happy to have some new challengers,” 

Upon leaving the Gym, Falkner had given them directions to the Ruins of Alph, both Lyra and Ethan having too much fun sticking their heads into random buildings. Though with how often Ethan almost knocked things over, Lyra decided she’d had enough after a bare ten minutes. 

“You’re going to break something,” Lyra hisses as Ethan carelessly passes an expensive, dusty vase. “Someone will get mad at you.”

“What are they gonna do about it if I do break something? They're just a bunch of old men anyway,” he says, bending over to stare intently at the vase he almost knocked over, reaching out to drag a finger over it’s cracked surface.

Before she can stop herself she grabs his wrist and pulls it away, stepping back when Ethan stares at her with wide eyes. “Don’t,” she whispers, voice wavering. 

He glances between her and the vase for a while before straightening. “I won’t,”

She walks up to him, gently offering her hand to him, a small smile coming to her face when he takes it even after hesitating for a moment. They walk out of the Ruins together and start down route 32.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone says anything, yes I know your not supposed to be able to get Shinx until post-game with the Sinnoh sound, but since there is no random overworld music playing you're going to have to ignore that little fact. (also Luxray is one of my favorite Pokemon and I wanted to have one on Lyra's team)
> 
> My interpretation of the Pokemon Centre hostels is that they have to house a lot of trainers, especially in larger towns and cities, so it's a way to conserve space and make new friends. Did I include them just so I could do that one scene, yes. Do I regret it, no.
> 
> Also Falkner is an absolute goof and I love him, must protect the precious child. Before it gets weird my interpretation of Falkner is around 19 so there isn't a weird age gap or something (I couldn't be bothered to actually look up his age since i would probably get like twenty different numbers)


	3. Slowpoke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tails. Gross.

Both are surprised to learn of the Pokemon Center that lies about halfway between Violet City and Azalea Town, but no complaints were voiced, especially since Union Cave lied a little ways ahead of where the Centre was. 

“Argh darn it, none of my Pokemon can learn Flash, we're going to be going through the cave in the dark,” Lyra complains, poking miserably at her breakfast. 

“Good thing I brought flashlights,” Ethan says. “And caught a Bellsprout.”

“Really when?”

“Right before Falkner's Gym, that’s why I asked the elder where I could find them,”

“Makes sense, and that also covers Cyndaquil’s Water-type weakness,”

“Yup. Pretty convenient,”

Casanova and Bellsprout became a true M.V.P.s as they traveled through the cave, Casanova being able to take down most anything they encountered with a Water Gun or two, and Bellsprout being able to light their way when their flashlights just weren’t enough. 

“This. Thing. Won’t. Leave. Me. Alone!” Lyra shouts indignantly, dodging the fifth divebomb of a very persistent Zubat. “Sunny, come out at use Thunder Fang on that Zubat,” 

Shinx quickly pops out of its Pokeball, happy to finally be able to stretch his legs, and fruitlessly lunges at the Zubat. It dodges easily, flying into more of a fit and attacking Lyra at twice the frequency than it was before. 

“What do you want from me?” she shrieks, arms thrown over her head, running in circles. She panics and lobs a Pokeball at it, only for it to shake twice violently and still with a click. 

She stares at it in shock, then back at her other two Pokemon looked just as surprised as she felt. “Guess you two are getting an impromptu teammate,” she says, reaching down to scoop the Pokeball off the ground. 

Shinx eagerly trots up to her and sniffs at the Pokeball, while Casanova tries to hide her own interest in her new teammate. 

Union Cave was annoyingly large, and it took a better part of the day to get through it, though they did get turned around a few times and had to ask for help from miscellaneous trainers to find the exit. 

To both their surprise, they didn’t meet a single trainer on route 33.

“I don’t like how quiet it is,” Lyra says quietly, glancing around uneasily. 

“Yeah, it seems wrong somehow. We haven’t seen a wild Pokemon in a while either,”

Lyra squints towards a black clad human-esc figure standing a little ways in front of them. “Is that a person?”

“Maybe? Let's go and check,” 

The closer they got, the more uneasy Lyra felt. There wasn’t a reason she could pinpoint, but Ethan also seemed to mirror her feelings. 

A man in a black uniform and pink hair was mulling around, with his back to them, unaware of Ethan and Lyra’s approach. 

“Um excuse me,” Lyra starts, only for the man to whip around with wide eyes, Lyra catching a glimpse of a red R emblazoned on his chest. It seemed so familiar, but however much she racked her brain she couldn’t remember where she’d seen it before. 

“Who the hell are you kids? Can’t your parents keep you inside?” he sneers, waving them off. “Go home, it’s past curfew, but I don’t feel like getting involved so I’ll pretend I didn’t notice,” 

Ethan looks annoyed, opening his mouth to shoot the other man a backhanded comment, but Lyra frantically shakes her head and gestures wildly for him not to say anything, her blood running cold when she remembers where she’s seen the emblem on the man’s shirt before. 

“Ethan,” she hisses when he tries to break out of her grip. Her panicked expression makes him rethink the actions he was about to take, simply glaring at the strange man before letting Lyra pull him along towards Azalea Town. 

“What was that about?” he asks once they’re out of earshot of the pink haired man.

“He was wearing a Team Rocket logo.” 

Ethan pales, glancing back in the direction they came from.

They silently walk into town, dismayed to find that the Pokemon Centre was closed, and only a single house with lights on. 

They nervously approach it, Lyra knocking lightly on the door. 

An old man quickly opens the door looking ready to shout at them, but stopping short of doing so. He sticks his head outside before ushering the two companions inside without a word. 

“What are you younguns doing here? Don’t you know what’s been going on?”

“Does it have something to do with Team Rocket?” Lyra guesses. 

The old man nods. “You two had better sit down,” he says, motioning to the chairs at the kitchen table. “Team Rocket came to town a little under a week ago and they’ve been hanging around the well, cutting off SlowpokeTails for profit. Some people have tried to stop them, but they always come back with something broken, babbling about some teal haired lunatic,”

“That sounds horrible,” gasps Lyra. 

“You two youngun’s had better stay here for the night. It’s too dangerous for you out there in the dark,”

“We-” Ethan begins, though Lyra cuts him off with a stern look.

“Thank you very much for the offer, we should probably take you up on that, it’s starting to get really late,”

Ethan sighs in defeat but nods nonetheless. 

She has a hard time getting to sleep, just as she’s drifting off she hears a faint knock at the door followed by a quiet sniffle.

She’s up in an instant, opening the door to find the old man’s granddaughter, Carrie, with tears streaming down her face. 

“Hey what’s wrong?” she asks, crouching down and pulling the little girl into a hug that she hopes makes her feel a little safer.

A sniffle. “Grandpa said he was going to go out and teach those Team Rocket guys a lesson *sniff* and just left. Please go after him! He’s going to get himself hurt,”

“Don’t worry, I’ll wake up Ethan and we’ll go after Mr. Kurt, you don’t have to worry,” 

“Thank you,”

Lyra gives her a reassuring smile.

“You can go back to sleep and when you wake up tomorrow we’ll have your Grandpa back safe, okay?”

“Okay,”

Lyra walks Carrie back to her room, tucking her back into bed with a smile, and immediately bolts back to her room to shake Ethan awake.

“Ethan,” she whispers loudly, dragging the covers off a complaining Ethan.

“It’s the middle of the night, what do you want,” he grumbles. 

“Mr. Kurt decided he was going to fight fucking Team Rocket and we have to go after him,” 

Lyra pulls a Slowpoke sweater over her t-shirt, and instantly regrets not putting on longer pants as she steps outside. It may be the middle of summer, but it was cold, but no way was she going to go back when they had already run halfway across town. Granted the running kept her warm, as they stumbled around looking for the well, their only source of light being Ethan’s almost burnt out flashlight and the little sliver of the moon peeking through the clouds. 

The man they had seen earlier was gone as they descended the slope toward the well. 

Once they reach the bottom, they find Mr. Kurt lying on the floor, half in a puddle of water, Lyra quickly rushing over and helping him stand up. 

“Hello there youngun’s. The guard guarding the well took off when I yelled at him, but I took a tumble and ended up on my poor old back. Rats! If I were fit my pokemon would have punished them. You two give them a run for their money,”

Ethan storms into the cave entrance beside them, Lyra following hot on his heels. They find the pink haired man from before sitting on the floor with a lavender haired woman and green haired man, a stack of cards piled between them. 

“You kids again? What do you want?” the pink haired man says. 

“Wait Myles you’ve seen these kids before?” the lavender haired woman asks quietly. 

“Yeah, they broke curfew earlier today, but I didn’t feel like saying anything,” 

“Dumbass,” the green haired man mumbles. “Might as well teach them a lesson now, it’s your fault they’re here in the first place.”

“Fine, we’ll have a double battle, Karis help me out,” 

Karis sighs but pushes herself up from where she was sitting, coming to stand beside Myles. 

“Go Zubat,”

“Go Koffing,”

“Go Sunny,”

“Go Cyndaquil,” 

Myles groans when he sees Sunny, the type advantage and experience difference to his Zubat was clear, even to him.

The green haired man purses his lips as he glances over the makeshift battlefield and the Pokemon who now inhabited it. “Myles I said teach them a lesson, not be an absolute loser,” 

“Wow, you’re being very helpful Sai, why don’t you come here and do something since you seem to have such an opinion,” Myles snaps, voice dripping with sarcasm.   
“Nah I’m good,” Sai says, becoming very interested in the rock formations on the ceiling.

Myles opens his mouth, pivoting on the spot to face Sai again. 

“Will you two shut up!”

Everyone turns surprised eyes to Karis, who was seemingly the most soft spoken one of the trio, but Myles and Sai fidgeting anxiously eluded to the complete opposite. 

“Shut your worthless asses and be useful. Myles you started this so you’re going to fucking finish it. Sai your opinions are worthless in this scenario, so I don’t want to hear another word out of that shitty ass mouth of yours until we send these kids packing. Understood?” 

“You don’t gotta be so bitchy about it,” Sai mumbles, the look Karis shoots him even making Lyra’s hair stand on end. 

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that, care to repeat it when I hang you by your ankles and leave you in this cave?” 

Sai mumbles something else and catches Myles pleading expression, very begrudgingly grunting out an audible ‘no’ that serves to bring Karis back to her passive state. 

She turns back to Ethan and Lyra who had been watching the entire scene unfold with barely masked surprise, even their Pokemon seemed amused. 

Karis sighs, turning unimpressed eyes to her two other companions. “You two made us look like idiots. Now we actually have to try and teach these guys a lesson.”

They silently glower at her, Myles turning back to the fight, clearly annoyed. 

“Fine, Zubat use Gust,” 

“Sunny use Thunder Fang,” 

“Koffing, use Tackle,”

“Cyndaquil, Ember,” 

The Grunt’s Pokemon go down without much fuss, though Myles’ Ekans becomes quite problematic when it poisons Sunny and Cyndaquil, almost knocking out Sunny with a well thought out attack and letting Sunny tetter on the edge of fainting. 

Cyndaquil is able to take it out with another Ember and their only major problem so far is returned to its Pokeball. 

Myles shoots them a sour glare while Karis turns alarmed eyes to Sai, who scabies up from where he was leaning against the wall and runs off further into the cave. 

“Get back here,” Ethan roars, taking after him, Lyra’s gut is telling her that this is not a not good, very terrible idea, but she starts after Ethan anyway. 

“Proton,” Sai yells once he runs into a more open part of the cave. “We have a problem.”

A man who was hunched over in the corner straightens, bloody butchers knife in one hand, still wriggling SlowpokeTail in the other. 

“The hell Sai? Can’t you see that I’m busy?” he says, glancing at Ethan and Lyra, doing a quick double take. “You kids lost or somethin’? Scram,” 

“Are you in charge here,” Ethan asks. 

“What if I am?” 

“Then fuck you,” 

Proton laughs, twirling the knife between his fingers. “You sure you want to go down that route kid?” he drops the Slowpoke tail and reaches for the Pokeball on his belt. “I’ll give you one more chance to get out of here. I’m not known as the cruelest guy in Team Rocket for nothing.”

Ethan grits his teeth, starting towards Proton barely taking one step before Lyra grapes at his wrist. 

Proton’s mouth twists into a smile. “I admire your spunk kid, but the chick over there definitely has the brains, so she’ll definitely be more fun to battle,” he turns to Lyra. “What do you say? If you win I’ll consider overlooking your friends disrespect,” 

“There isn’t really a choice is there?” Lyra says, casting an uneasy glance towards Ethan. 

“Good choice. Go Koffing,”

Lyra glances at the Pokeballs on her belt, worrying her bottom lip as she tries to figure out who she should choose. Sunny was still weak from their previous fight, and her Zubat was still too young to be of much help. 

“Go Casanova,” 

“Koffing use Smog,” 

“Casanova Water Gun,” 

Casanova is able to douse the Koffing with water, only for it to start releasing a foul smelling purple gas. 

Lyra and Ethan both instinctively cover their noses, coughing violently when they accidentally inhale some of the gas. 

“Casanova, hang in there another Water Gun should do it,” Lyra manages between fits of coughing. 

Casanova is sluggish and stumbles slightly, but the Koffing is even slower and unable to dodge her second Water Gun. 

It falls to the ground with a pitiful noise, the purple gas disappearing with it once it’s returned to its Pokeball. 

Proton’s eye twitches as he reaches for the next Pokeball on his belt. 

“Go Zubat,”

Casanova turns her eyes to Lyra, waiting for indication to attack. 

“Casanova use Water Gun,” 

“Zubat use Supersonic,” 

Casanova somehow dodges the Zubat’s ear piercing shriek and douses it with water. The Pokemon now being waterlogged hover closer to the ground, letting Casanova clamp down on the Pokemon with her jaws.

The Zubat thrashes and squeaks, but Casanova shows no signs of letting go. 

Proton’s lip is curled into a snarl, eyes flicking between the knife in his hand and Lyra, only for him to pale when he glances past her shoulder. 

Lyra whirls around, coming to face a Syther at least six feet tall. She shrieks, stumbling back, Casanova appearing by her feet and growling warningly, Proton’s Zubat forgotten. 

The Syther pays them no attention, glaring over Lyra’s head at Proton who had begun inching his way towards the exit of the cave, only to spot a young kid with lavender hair and a bug net slung across their back blocking his way. 

Proton backs away, eyes wide as his back hits the wall like a cornered animal.

“Sai,” He roars. “Get back here,” 

Everyone turns to see Sai bolt out of the cave through a side entrance, Proton taking the temporary distraction to barrel into Lyra, knocking her to the ground and running after him. 

She falls backwards, reflexively sticking her arms out behind her to take the brunt of the fall, scraping her palms in the process. Her hands burn as she pulls them close to her chest, glad to see that there was no blood. 

“Are you okay?” The kid she had seen before had come over, worry clear in their eyes. 

“Yeah, it’s just a scrape,”

“That’s good to hear. I was worried when Mr. Kurt came to get me, but I’m glad you were able to hold them off until I got here,” 

“Thank you for coming.” she pauses. “Not to be rude but who exactly are you?”

“I’m Bugsy, the Azalea Gym leader, nice to meet you,”

“You’re just a kid,” Ethan blurts from where he was pressed to the wall, staying as far away from the Syther as possible, looking horrified when he notices what he said.

Bugsy laughs. “Don’t underestimate me just because I’m young, I wouldn’t be a Gym leader if I wasn’t a good Trainer.” they say, returning their Syther. 

Ethan rushes over to Lyra, taking her hands and inspecting them in case she was lying about the severity of what happened. 

“You shouldn’t have fought him,” Ethan mumbles after a moment of silence. “I was the person who dragged you into this in the first place.”

“You didn’t drag me anywhere, I followed you out of my own free will thank you very much,” 

“He had a knife Lyra.” he says, not meeting her eyes. “He had a knife and he could have hurt you with it, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” 

“It’s not your fau-”

“I couldn’t move. When he had the knife and was about to lunge at you, I couldn’t move.” 

“It didn’t happen though,”

“But it could have. I can’t even be useful enough to protect people who are important to me,”

Lyra places her hands on his shoulder, prompting him to glance up at her. “I don’t care if you’re useful or not, you're my friend and that’s enough for me,” she says, pulling him into a hug.

He tenses timidly melting into the affection and wrapping his arms around her torso, letting his head drop onto her shoulder. 

Bugsy had silently slipped out of the cave, now waiting at the top of the well. 

“You two ready to head back to town?” they ask. 

“Yes, thank you for waiting,” Lyra says as they start walking. “We probably would have gotten lost on the way back anyway.”

Bugsy giggles, eyes going wide and glancing between Lyra and Ethan. “You wouldn’t happen to be the trainers Falkner told me about,”

“Depends if what he said was nice or not,” Ethan mutters. 

Lyra hums in agreement. 

“He said you both gave him a run for his money in your Gym challenges, and to not underestimate you. Also to warn Lyra that my Gym has heights,” 

She groans, dropping her head in her hands. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Nope,”

“Ugh, great”

Bugsy gives them a few details about the Gym, careful to not explain anything except that there was a puzzle they needed to finish before they were able to challenge them, as they walk Lyra and Ethan back towards Mr. Kurt's house. 

“Mr. Kurt wanted me to give you his thanks, and tell you that you’re both welcome to stay for as long as you like.”

“We have to remember to thank him for his hospitality,” Lyra agrees. “It would be awful to have to move all our stuff to the Pokemon centre in the middle of the night.”

“I can’t wait to sleep,” Ethan says with a perfectly timed yawn to further prove his point. 

“Me too,”

By the time they’re trudging to the room they were sleeping in, the full adrenaline crash sets in. They both collapse onto their sleeping bags, and are asleep in a matter of minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can't tell me that Bugsy isn't nonbinary. No one knows what they identify as, the game Wikis certainly don't, and neither do the game developers. So their either nonbinary or genderfluid take your pick. 
> 
> With that out of the way, we're finally getting somewhere with the story and we finally got the first appearance of Team Rocket. Proton was honestly the most fun character to write, and I can't wait to write him again, but amp up the psycho to 1000. It's going to be great. 
> 
> Yay for character development. Ethan has to work through his parental neglect and Lyra's just trying her best. I'm just trying my best to write it so it's semi believable. I could always use the excuse that it's fiction and it doesn't need to be believable, but I don't think it works in the context of human to human relationships.

**Author's Note:**

> That's the end.
> 
> Jk I have a general idea where I want to go with the story, but I'm more of a 'write when you have an idea person' and have a tendency to get writers block if I get too many ideas I want to include. Hopefully I'll update once every week of two (for longer chapter) but I don't like having deadlines and I want to stay at least one chapter in front of the story at all times, so I always have something to upload, just in case. 
> 
> This story's going to be quite different from the games, except for the fact that it follows the general timelines of the games, but it has aspects from the anime as well, like not being able to walk from one place to another in just one day. 
> 
> SPOILER WARNING: for the games.  
> I'm keeping the same villain in the games, that being Archer, since I feel like they could have done so much more with his character than what they did in the games. You get to fight each of the other executives twice, but him only once and he appears at the very end of the Team Rocket episode, only to disband the team, again, and then is never seen for the rest of the game. He is one of my favorite main series villains (after Cyrus and Ghetsis since I feel like they got more character development and a stronger story (I'm so exited for the Sinnoh remakes holy crap)) and I really just wanted a chance to write more of him, and actually make Team Rocket the evil entity they should have been if the series wasn't for kids.


End file.
